WWE Raw
WWE Raw is a WWE television program that currently airs live on Monday evenings on the USA Network in the United States, Tuesday mornings on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom and Tuesday afternoons into Australia. The show debuted on January 11, 1993 and since has been the flagship program of WWE's syndicated programming. WWE Raw moved from the USA Network to TNN in September 2000 and then to Spike in August 2003, when TNN was rebranded. On October 3, 2005, WWE Raw returned to the USA Network, where it remains today. Since its first episode, WWE Raw has broadcast live from 208 different arenas in 171 cities and towns in ten different nations (the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Afghanistan in 2005, Iraq in 2006 and 2007, South Africa, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Mexico). As of the show's 1,000th episode that aired on July 23, 2012, Raw has become a three-hour broadcast from two hours, a format that had previously been reserved for special episodes. USA Network (1993–2000) Beginning as WWF Monday Night Raw, the program first aired on January 11, 1993. It aired on the USA Network for one hour. The original Raw broke new ground in televised professional wrestling. Traditionally, wrestling shows were taped on sound stages with small audiences or at large arena shows. The Raw formula was considerably different from the taped weekend shows that aired at the time such as WWF Superstars and WWF Wrestling Challenge. Instead of matches taped weeks in advance with studio voice overs and taped discussion, Raw was a show shot and aired to a live audience, with angles playing out as they happened. Raw originated from the Grand Ballroom at Manhattan Center Studios, a small New York City theater, and aired live each week. The combination of an intimate venue and live action proved to be a successful improvement. However, the weekly live schedule proved to be a financial drain on the WWF. From Spring 1993 up until Spring 1997, Raw would tape several week's worth of episodes after a live episode had aired. The WWF taped several weeks worth of Raw from the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York in April 1993, and again in June and October (from 1984-1986 the Civic Center was the home of another WWF TV show WWF Championship Wrestling). The first episode produced outside of New York was taped in Bushkill, Pennsylvania in November 1993 and Raw left the Manhattan Center permanently as the show would be taken on the road throughout the United States and had in smaller venues. Raw, uniquely in its day, featured some competitive matches between upper level talent such as Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Mr. Perfect, Doink the Clown, The Undertaker, Yokozuna, and the 1-2-3 Kid in its early years. Up until that point, unless it was part of an ongoing feud or a title match, most matches on nationally televised WWF programs were primarily "squash" matches. Only WWE Saturday Night's Main Event and WWF The Main Event generally featured the type of matches Raw had, though unlike Raw, those two programs were run infrequently. Huge storyline-developing matches were regularly featured, such as Ric Flair vs. Mr. Perfect in January 1993; this would be Flair's last appearance in the company for almost 9 years. The Kid's upset victory of Razor Ramon in May 1993 would result in The Kid becoming an upper roster mainstay for years to come. Vince McMahon, "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Rob Bartlett were the original hosts of the show, Bartlett being a comedian who previously had nothing to do with the wrestling industry. He would be replaced by Bobby Heenan in April 1993, though he left the company in December and would leave McMahon and Savage to host the show alone. Savage would leave in October 1994, leaving McMahon with several different co hosts each week including Shawn Michaels and Jim Cornette. Jerry Lawler would become McMahon's permanent co host in April 1995 in a role he kept until December 29, 2014 when it was announced Booker T would be replacing Lawler on commentary following his hospitalization for diverticulitis. Lawler has since been named as a permanent co-host for WWE SmackDown. Raw Is War and The Monday Night Wars Main article: The Monday Night Wars In September 1995, the WWF's chief competitor World Championship Wrestling began airing its new wrestling show, WCW Nitro, live each week on TNT. Raw and Nitro went head-to-head for the first time on September 11, 1995. Due to Raw's taping schedule on several occasions, WCW Vice President Eric Bischoff, who also worked as an on-air authority figure, would frequently give away the results of WWF's taped Raw shows on the live WCW show. Some fans also looked at Raw taping results on the steadily growing Internet; this caused the ratings of the taped Raw episodes to decrease. At the start of the ratings war in 1995 through to mid-1996, Raw and Nitro exchanged victories over each other in a closely contested rivalry. Beginning in mid-1996, however, thanks primarily to the nWo angle, Nitro started a ratings win-streak that lasted for 84 consecutive weeks, ending on April 13, 1998. Controversy erupted on the November 4, 1996 episode when Brian Pillman, engaged in a feud with Steve Austin, pulled a gun on Austin during a home-invasion segment. Pillman was also heard shouting the word "fucking" during the segment, which, due to the live nature of Raw, went uncensored. Executives at USA Network were not pleased with the episode, and forced the WWF and Pillman to apologize for the incident. Pillman was sent to a mental hospital a few days after the incident. On February 3, 1997, Monday Night Raw went to a two-hour format, as an edgier, more hostile attitude was starting to come in full stream in the WWF. In an attempt to break the momentum of what had turned into ratings domination by Nitro, Extreme Championship Wrestling was brought in as Jerry Lawler challenged ECW on February 17, 1997. In an episode where Raw returned to the Manhattan Center, the challenge was answered with Taz, Mikey Whipwreck, Sabu, Tommy Dreamer, D-Von Dudley, and The Sandman and "ECW Representative" Paul Heyman appearing and performing ECW-style matches for the WWF audience. On March 3, 1997, a house show from Berlin, Germany, which was filmed with few cameras and poor lighting and featured an array of cold matches with no storyline builds to them, aired as that week's episode of Raw. The show was very poorly received by fans (earning only a 0.7 rating, one of the lowest the show has ever recorded) and WWF executives, alike. The following week, Raw was completely revamped with a new set, new theme music (originally "The Beautiful People" by Marilyn Manson, later a WWF-created song), and was renamed Raw is War. The March 17, 1997 episode featured a heated Bret Hart/Vince McMahon altercation where Hart shoved McMahon to the mat and engaged in a profanity-laden tirade, much of which went uncensored. Throughout 1997, further controversial elements emerged with Raw and WWF programming. Notable angles included Bret Hart and his Hart Foundation declaring war on the United States lifestyle, Paul Bearer delivering an intense promo on June 30 claiming that The Undertaker's brother Kane was still alive after surviving a house fire twenty years prior and claiming that the Undertaker had started it, gang warfare between the Nation of Domination, the Disciples of Apocalypse and Los Boricuas erupting in the summer, Steve Austin's building feud with WWF executives, and primarily Vince McMahon (who was now known as the legit owner of the World Wrestling Federation), and the emergence of D-Generation X as an anti-establishment group. On November 17, Vince McMahon was interviewed by Jim Ross about the infamous Montreal Screwjob at the WWE Survivor Series 1997 and said to the world that Bret Hart screwed Bret Hart and said that bret was a tragic figure on that night. Bret would be shifted to WCW. After WWE WrestleMania 14 in March 1998, which featured Mike Tyson as a ring enforcer, and Shawn Michaels' final match up until 2002, the WWF regained the lead in the Monday Night Wars with its new "WWF Attitude" brand, led in particular by rising stars Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H and Mankind. The classic feud between the WWF Chairman Vince McMahon and fan favorite Steve Austin caught the interest of fans. The April 13, 1998 episode of Raw, headlined by a match between Austin and McMahon, marked the first time that WCW had lost the head-to-head Monday night ratings battle in the 84 weeks since 1996. On Raw, fans were immersed in the feud between Vince McMahon and Steve Austin, while superstars like Triple H, Mankind and The Rock were gradually elevated to main event status in the WWF. Other superstars such as Kane, Val Venis, The New Age Outlaws and Edge, among others were coming through the ranks and exposing the WWF as territory where new talent could ascend, as opposed to WCW. Matters were so heated between the two programs that, when both shows were in the Hampton Roads area on the same night (Raw in Hampton, Virginia, Nitro in Norfolk, Virginia), DX was sent to film a "war" segment at the Norfolk Scope where they berated WCW and interviewed fans on camera who stated that they received their Nitro tickets for free (presumably in an attempt by WCW to pack the arena to capacity due to low ticket sales). On January 4, 1999, Mick Foley, who had wrestled for WCW during the early 1990s as Cactus Jack, won the WWF Title as Mankind on Raw. On orders from Bischoff, Nitro announcer Tony Schiavone gave away this previously taped result on a live Nitro and then sarcastically added, "that's gonna put some butts in the seats," consequently resulting in over 600,000 viewers switching channels to watch Raw. This was also the night that Nitro aired a WCW World Heavyweight Championship match in which Kevin Nash blatantly laid down for Hulk Hogan after Hogan poked him in the chest. Tragedy befell the World Wrestling Federation at the WWF Over the Edge 1999 pay-per-view on May 23, 1999 when Owen Hart died in an in-ring stunt gone wrong. The following night on Raw, the entire episode was dedicated to the memory of Hart with various WWF personalities delivering out-of-character comments on the accident. While the episode was the second highest rated edition of Raw up to that point, it was regarded by several critics, including Hart's brother, Bret, as being in bad taste. On September 27, 1999, Mick Foley helped Raw achieve some of its highest ratings ever with a segment featuring himself (as Mankind) and The Rock. In a send-up of the TV series This Is Your Life, Mankind presented people from The Rock's past, such as a home economics teacher, gym teacher and old high school girlfriend, all of whom were hilariously rejected by The Rock. The This is Your Life segment remains one of the highest rated segments in Raw viewership history, with an 8.4 rating.